Shadow Warrior 2 is free on GOG right now

The rude, crude Shadow Warrior 2 is free to grab on GOG for the next two days. Flying Wild Hog’s shooter is a big messy slab of old-school FPS’ing infused with painful jokes (which frequently made me giggle), some Borderlands-ish stat juggling, procedural encounter generation and lots of monsters and cyborgs to mulch.

Adam Smith gushed profusely in his review, calling it “anarchic, excessive, ridiculous, occasionally spectacular and almost entirely wonderful”. After winning over Firewatch and Superhot in a vote today, GOG are giving it away for 48 hours, celebrating the store’s 10th anniversary . Get it here and tell your friends – it’s co-op too.

While other shooters that tried to marry FPS and RPG mechanics often have enemies feeling like bags of numbers that unravel when out of HP, I always thought Shadow Warrior 2 did better. Visible locational damage makes it feel like you’re hurting monsters even if you’re not killing them outright, plus a steady stream of ‘popcorn’ enemies that die quickly helps keep up the pace. While there’s not much more to the game than ‘Go here, shoot this’, the shooting and looting was messy and satisfying enough to take me well into New Game Plus territory.

Extended play near launch did reveal some cracks in Shadow Warrior 2’s armour, including some shortfalls in balance and a dearth of side missions. Flying Wild Hog supported the game well, though, releasing some very beneficial patches and a trio of free DLC packs full of new weapons and over thirty new side-missions. Even if you played through the game when it was new, the new missions and influx of new co-op partners are a good excuse to return.

Shadow Warrior 2 is free for the next 48 hours, the giveaway ending on 3pm BST, October 6th. Snap it up here. While you’re there, check out our list of Good Games For Better People on GOG for something a little more gentle to come down with after a fun day of gutting cyborg demons from hell.